Lives of the last four princesses of the royal house of Stuart

1650.] OKDERED TO CARISBROOK CASTLE. 201
Pride, and perhaps become the consort of his son ! The
Countess of Leicester prevented of course such annoying
tittle tattle from coming to the eye or the ear of her
melancholy, drooping charge.
The landing of Charles II. in Scotland, in 1050, caused
a great sensation in England, and the Commons resolved
to send his brother and sister beyond the limits of the
Commonwealth. To have restored them to the longing-
arms of the widowed Queen their mother, or sent them to
their sister the Princess of Orange, would have been tender
mercy, but the tender mercies of the wicked are proverbially
cruel. Those of the Council of State were barbarous,
beyond the bounds of credibility, for in the whole extent
of Great Britain they could select no other place to send
the broken-hearted children of their royal victim but
Carisbrook, oh Carisbrook ! where every stone would
seem to chronicle their hapless father's sufferings and
wrongs. How could Cromwell, Ireton, Marten, and
Bradshaw, have found it in their hard hearts to send the
unoffending orphans there ?
The very order to Colonel Sydenham, governor of the
Isle of Wight, appointing him to receive the two children
of the late King, was written and signed by Joseph
Bradshaw, president of the Council of State, who had
illegally insulted the King, their father, at his mock
trial.
Although the Princess Elizabeth had been ill so long,
she was pronounced capable of performing the long
journey, and that without the attendance of a governess,
maid of honour, bedchamber woman, or any other
experienced lady to take care of her by the way.
Two females were all who . were allowed, namely, one
Judith Briot, her gentlewoman, in plain words, her lady's
maid or dresser, the other, Elizabeth Jones, her laundress,